MDF Terrain Review: 15th Century Urban Dwelling by XOLK (28mm)

XOLK has been kind enough to send Must Contain Minis a number of products for review. Among those products is their 15th Century Urban Dwelling.

For those looking for pictures of how they work in different settings, I have pictures in this article of the house in a WW2 setting (Bolt Action) and a Fantasy setting (Frostgrave). This should give readers an idea of the model’s versatility – a nice selling feature to me.

In the picture above are some World War 2 miniatures with a XOLK 15th Century Urban Dwelling.

This house runs $34.99 Canadian (that is roughly $26 American with today’s exchange rate). Like the Normand House in Ruins and XOLK Bridge, the piece comes unpainted and unassembled. This particular kit comes as four flat MDF boards. It goes together fairly easily (although I did refer to the online directions a couple of times to make sure that I was doing things right). XOLK is pretty good about putting their instructions online.

As one can see, the roof comes off, but so too does every floor. To make sure that the house does not slide apart while it is together, little tabs are provided to paste under the second floor and roof. These tabs are not pictured, but stop the model from sliding apart and I prefer the tabs over how my 4Ground and Plastcraft Games houses stay together.

Every floor can come apart to allow internal access to the building. There are some nice details here including a fireplace.

28mm Miniatures fit the scale of the house perfectly and I like how the stairs even accommodate their bases. Below is a better picture of the miniatures on the stairs.

This picture is brightened to better showcase the stairs. Check out how the models fit nicely onto the steps.

To make things interesting, I took the top portion of the house and place it over the Bolt Action Commander (who is on the top step of the stairs on the floor below). He fits through the hole perfectly.

Unfortunately, I did not get shots of the assembly or painting process simply because I was working quickly to prep for Hotlead 2017. To paint the model, all that I did was a quick basecoat along with some dry-brushing. No inks or washes. Just a quick and simple job. Regardless, the house still looks great despite not a lot of effort going into it. Below are a couple of more pictures of the house in a WW2 setting.

A very nice piece of Terrain for WW2.

Both sides of the house are solid with no windows. Because of this, I can imagine a few of these going side by side to create a row of townhouses.

As stated earlier, this house works equally well for a fantasy setting as for WW2. Below are pictures of same building, but in a fantasy winter scene.

Some Barbarians stand before a house they captured.

All of the models fit into the house nicely.

The stairs work with these miniatures just as easily as the WW2 soldiers.

The house dissembled into its three pieces.

The picture above is a little over-exposed to give a sense of scale to the model. the Barbarian to the right is 28mm while the one of the left is 32mm. Judging from the height of the door, this kit is sized to 28mm but is perfectly serviceable to 32mm figures. The 32mm model also fits in the house with the lids (roof and floors) closed.

Overall, this was an enjoyable kit to build and looks great on the table. A further selling feature to me is that it fits into multiple genres including my core games of Frostgrave and Bolt Action.

For anyone looking to outfit a table with some cool MDF terrain, XOLK is certainly worth a look.

Personally, I think it would be interesting to get three of these house side-by-side, to form a row of townhouses. It also shows nicely beside XOLK’s Cottage in Ruins.

The 15th Century Urban Dwelling paired with a Cottage in Ruins.

Until next time, Happy Gaming Everyone!!!

Discloser: XOLKprovided Must Contain Minis with a 15th Century Urban Dwelling for Review Purposes.

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